There has been lots of buzz about Ancestry over the last couple of days in the Genealogy Sphere. There is speculation that Ancestry is up for sale. Ancestry has been involved in communications with Qatalyst Partners to look at prospective buyers. There was some speculation that the big men on campus, Google and Facebook were thought to be contenders, but this has since been put to rest. It seems more likely to be purchased by BrightSolid, who is just moving into the US market and who already runs ScotlandsPeople, FindMyPast and GenesReunited. Certainly with £13.5 billion in assets ($22.25 billion), it is likely to be the leading contender if in fact it expresses an interest in the purchase. This may see a switch from the current annual membership to the more traditional credit system that Brightsolid is known for. Although, with FindMyPast, they institute both, which may be more beneficial to some potential Ancestry users.

And speaking of membership, Pat Richley-Erickson of Dear Myrtle fame pointed out an interesting piece of information in her blog post yesterday. Apparently if you CALL Ancestry on the phone to renew your membership (as opposed to an automatic renewal or renewing online) you can save $100. Who knew??

Ancestry has also announced that they have the 1940 US census for New York State now fully indexed and fully searchable, which will be pleasant news to those like me who can't stand the thought of trawling through thousands of images looking for the needle in a haystack.